Returning to My First Love

I’ll never forget the day I was cleaning my top dresser drawer and found a treasure.

I read through the stack of aged, yellowed papers and instantly realized why I’d kept them. On them were written words of endearment—nearly 30 years ago—from my husband. They contained irresistible phrases like, “You complete me like no other” and “I love you desperately.”

As I read through them, my eyes teared. And then my heart dropped. Why doesn’t he write these words to me anymore?

It would have been easy to believe he was the one who had become distant, more critical, and less interested in me through the years. It was a little tougher, though, to ask if I were the one who let resentments build or baggage get in the way.

That night, I lay awake next to my husband and wondered how to turn back the clock. How could I make him see me the way he once did—as the captivating woman he fell in love with? Then I realized there was only one way to recapture his heart: be the woman I was and do the things I did when he first fell in love with me.

In Revelation 2:4-5 Christ told a first-century church, “You have forsaken the love you had at first. Consider how far you have fallen. Repent and do the things you did at first.”

While that verse can apply to complacency in our relationship with Christ, it can also apply to marriage. God is not the only One who recognizes when our enthusiasm for Him has waned. Husbands recognize when our enthusiasm for them has waned, too.

That night I asked God to help me look to Him as my first love and then begin responding to my husband the way I did when we first married.

Cindi McMenamin, a national speaker and author of sixteen books, has been married thirty years to a pastor and introvert. Her newest book, 12 Ways to Experience More with Your Husband, just released from Harvest House Publishers. For more on resources to strengthen your walk with God, your marriage, or parenting, visit Cindi’s website www.StrengthForTheSoul.com.